Why should Chinese art become a "little follower" of Western contemporary art
- From the 2015 Guangzhou Asian Art Biennale
Interviewer: Huang Weizhe (hereinafter referred to as "Huang")
Interviewer: Chen Bingjia (hereinafter referred to as "Chen")
Text compilation: Xu Li, Chen Yu
Huang: Guangdong Art Museum made a large-scale Asian Art Biennale. What do you think of it?
Chen: I think it should be affirmed overall, but it is not widely representative. I have not studied it too much. Although it is a state of existence of Western contemporary art in Asia, how many Asian components are there? Is it essentially Asian art? Can it reflect the spirit of Asian art? These are all worth discussing.
In addition, holding such an exhibition also reflects the characteristics of our Guangdong, especially Guangdong, which is the forefront of reform and opening up. Since modern times, Guangdong has always been known for its tolerance and openness in cultural and artistic concepts. Since the Revolution of 1911, Lingnan School of Painting, "Two High School and One Chen" to the reform and opening up, it has been leading the times. It should be said that this exhibition in Guangdong is a natural good thing, very necessary and positive.
Before discussing this issue, you must understand what is Western contemporary art. Western contemporary art is actually Western conceptual art. The so-called conceptual art is an art that fully reflects the artist's attention to the issues of the times through artistic works. It should be said that contemporary art has a strong sense of problematicism, and he wants to ask questions about people's survival and society in this era. It doesn’t matter what form of expression, means, media, and technology to use, the key is that it must bring problems.
This exhibition uses several main expressions of Western modern art, one is the expression of time continuation. Such as behavior, light and shadow, laser, etc., express a time process. After watching the entire exhibition, they are expressing their questions and discussions on the issues in accordance with the values of Western contemporary art. These issues can show their concerns about the environment, the process of human civilization, their own survival status, Asia's geopolitical areas, etc.
is spatial expression. Installations, on-stage paintings, sculptures, ceramics, etc., are relatively fixed expression forms with visual space. This form is no longer unique in the West, and there is no separate category of visual art. Oil paintings, lacquer paintings, sculptures, ceramics, etc., in the eyes of artists, the traditional spaces have been completely broken and have no boundaries at all.
Another feature of contemporary art is that it gives people a strong visual impact and shock, which is the problem of art itself. It is necessary to emphasize that the so-called problems and the philosophical thinking and concepts that are concerned about in contemporary art. Unlike philosophers and writers, the most important thing is to rely on vision to attract attention, and the unique shock force of visual art itself. Everyone is an artist, and any object can be used by me.
Guangdong Art Museum Asian Art Biennale basically continues to use the model of the German Cassel Documents Exhibition and the Venetian Biennale, which is the exhibition method of mainstream Western contemporary art. We will not explain much about the past and present of Western contemporary art here. I think we will discuss the growth of Western contemporary art in Asia, mainly China, and how to make Chinese art contemporary.
Huang: Do you think it is necessary to hold the Asian Contemporary Art Biennale or other similar art exhibitions in China held at the Guangdong Art Museum?
Chen: I think it is worth it, but it must be from Asia, not from Europe and the United States. Unfortunately, I only saw European and American things but couldn’t find Asian things, and Chinese art factors.
Huang: How should the Asian Art Biennale reflect the unique cultural atmosphere of Asia?
Chen: I have always felt that art is like the Amazon forest. It is a natural growth of various natural ecology, with flowers blooming, and living in harmony. The art of the global village should be the same. If Asian art follows Western contemporary art completely and is a "little follower", it will be difficult to reflect the true characteristics of Asian contemporary art. Now is an era when strong culture unifies the world. The mainstream Western values are regarded as universal values for all mankind, and the same is true for art.Especially contemporary art that originated in Paris and was strong in the United States, these are the most concentrated forms of Western industrial civilization, commercial civilization and Western humanistic development under the dominance of Christian civilization in the United States. Does this form have to be reproduced and misappropriated in exactly the same form in Asia? This question is also a question that we Asian art practitioners need to reflect on. In developed countries in Europe and the United States, Western contemporary art has a reasonable existence logic and science that promotes social progress with capital, science and technology, and Western philosophy, ethics, psychology, and values. But in Asia and even in Africa, should we use Western art forms to unify the world? I think it is worth studying. Because we reject or reject it if we can't understand it or are not used to it, and even abuse it is not a rational attitude. Or it is even more inappropriate to judge it by the theory of cultural expansion and "conspiracy theories".
Huang: Asia was originally the most advanced thing with world civilization, such as Chinese civilization, ancient Indian civilization, and the Two Rivers civilization, but it is almost impossible to reflect it in our Asian contemporary art, as if it has been cut off from ancient civilization.
Chen: Yes. Asia is now desperately in line with the West, especially the contemporary art of South Korea and Japan seen in this biennial. They embody more Western culture and cannot find any Asian spirit. Let me give an example, it is like the Asian Military Equipment Exhibition. We saw that the exhibits on this exhibition are basically the American F16, F35 and Apache helicopters, or American aircraft carriers. For such an exhibition, you can understand many problems with a little thought. The contemporary art exhibition I mentioned is like bringing American and European military equipment to Asia. The so-called Asian military equipment exhibition is all European and American equipment, and none of them is the work of Asians themselves. This is a kind of "violent" driving force of strong culture.
Where are the mainstream values of Asian culture? This is a very serious issue that requires us Chinese and even all Asians to think about. How should Asian culture show its charm and occupy its own unique position on the world art platform, rather than following the West, Europe and the United States to learn from and dance with the wolf. Such consequences in the long run will only cause our artistic thinking to be exhausted and completely dead. If such creations can make us feel pleasure, their essence is like taking stimulants and heroin, which makes us numb, dependent on our hearts, decadent, mentally trance, poverty-stricken, and short-lived.
Huang: Which work is the one who impressed the most?
Chen: I just took a quick look at this exhibition, and did not read each work carefully, and I could not have a deep understanding and impression. I just talked about how Chinese contemporary art should grow and reproduce, and how to be independent in the world's art forest. This exhibition is just a reference point and case for us to reflect Chinese contemporary art. Understanding an exhibition is not limited to one or two works, but should reflect on our artistic choices through the exhibition.
Huang: If Chinese contemporary art is just a Western imitation show, then according to your understanding, what should contemporary art in China or Asia be like?
Chen: Many Chinese scholars and artists are thinking about this issue, but there is no consensus. How art moves to the present is not a question of how to align with Western contemporary art. If we first put the starting point in line with Western art, we will make a big mistake. In the process of modernizing Chinese art, we will encounter two very important transformation periods.
The first time was after the May Fourth New Culture Movement, it fully accepted Western values, including Western philosophy, ethics, law, science and art. Especially when Chinese painting has been improved by the theory of Chinese painting proposed by Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao in , then to the transformation of Xu Beihong's Chinese painting, and after the founding of New China, Chinese paintings also emphasize modern painting, but now we are all paintings in Western paintings, not modern Chinese paintings, and we are following Western modern paintings.For example, the introduction of Western perspective, sketching, light and shadow, and Western aesthetic values into Chinese paintings have made Chinese paintings bruised and riddled with holes. This was also a fashion in the 1960s, just like today's follow-up to Western contemporary art, but now looking back and reflecting on what the result is? We did not look for problems from our own culture, but simply and roughly introduced valuable things in the West at that time, including the former Soviet Union's Tour School, to the transformation of Chinese painting. So now it seems that today's Chinese painting has nothing to do with our traditional ones.
The second time is that after the reform and opening up, the country's door was opened, and after the "85 New Thoughts", many young people emphasized the direct connection with Western contemporary art at that time. The more fully expressed the Chinese Contemporary Art Exhibition held at the China Art Museum in Beijing in 1989. This exhibition is basically a superficial, simple and direct clone exhibition of Western contemporary art. The exhibition caused a great sensation at the time, but it was forced to stop the exhibition and block it due to government intervention. After 30 years of experience, starting from 1981, the call for integration with Western contemporary art has become increasingly high, and there are more and more artistic groups practicing it, but the basic principles are still the same as the New Culture Movement in that year, almost repeating the pattern. Especially since 1991, we have performed drastic "surgical surgery" on ink painting, and Chinese painting has become a test piece of Western contemporary art. Last year, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the United States conducted a Chinese contemporary ink painting exhibition. The works displayed here are entirely interpreting ink painting using the aesthetics and values of Western contemporary art.
The so-called contemporary nature of Chinese art has many problems. If we directly graft the Western values and artistic concepts, it is easy to lead people to a slash.
Huang: What are your thoughts on Chinese contemporary art?
Chen: First of all, we basically follow the traditional Chinese ideological context in thinking, follow the spiritual core of Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian culture and Taoist traditions and agricultural civilization, and follow the main expression of China - ink painting, which is unique in the world. What we need to think about is how to make Chinese ink painting contemporary, starting from the local Chinese culture, rather than standing on the Western standpoint, which will have true dedication and original significance to human art. Whether all art can exist and spread must be original, otherwise it will not have artistic value.
As early as the 1980s, someone practiced to implant Pop into the creation of ink paintings, and I was negative about this. I once mentioned this issue specifically in an article "Going out of the Religion of Art", and I have a conservative view of the so-called new styles of ink paintings such as installation ink painting, ink painting behavior, etc. This is just a replica of contemporary art.
I think there are two things to stick to to achieve the contemporary nature of Chinese painting. First, we must work hard to deepen our traditional culture from the breadth and depth. Chinese civilization is profound and profound. As early as the pre-Qin period, the hundreds of schools of thought have contributed irrepeated great achievements to the history of human culture. This is the thought of the predecessors. Chinese art before the Han and Tang dynasties also had things unique to our nation, such as Qin bricks and Han tiles, patterns on painted pottery, patterns on bronze ware, etc., all appear in the form of Chinese art and are unique in the world.
Our generation has an obligation to interpret some cultural codes in the vast cultural system left by our ancestors. This kind of cultural code is hidden in what our ancestors left us for five thousand years. These things include great writing works, such as "The Hundred Schools of Thoughts", "The Book of Songs", "The Classic of Mountains and Seas", as well as image visual murals, sculptures, bronze, portrait bricks and stones, painted pottery, paper-cuts, and rich folk customs.
There is one thing I firmly believe in. If we have been following the single path of Song and Yuan literati for hundreds of years, and completely put our vision on this path and practice it would be very difficult.But we must also face the West, just like we look at this Asian Contemporary Biennale. We must see its positive significance. It can arouse our contemporary Chinese artists’ thinking on a problem. We must bring in the thinking of our modern people, the world outlook, methodology and the expression methods of modern people in Chinese paintings.
Second, we need to use a telescope to see the forefront of world culture and the forefront of human civilization, rather than being self-consistent and wearing long gowns and jackets like the ancients, and it is difficult to realize the modernity and contemporary nature of Chinese painting.
The so-called contemporary nature is what the living people want to live today. The living people draw the living people, not the living people want to die, and the living people draw the dead people.
The core of contemporary art is originality, and the most important thing in Western contemporary art is originality. If there is no originality, there is absolutely no contemporaryity. Plagiarism and copying absolutely do not have artistic attributes. Whether it is plagiarism of ancient people or modern people, oriental people or Western people, it must be a joke.
Huang: Regarding contemporaryity, I want to say Qi Baishi, why did Qi Baishi gain so many recognition and praise?
Chen: The reason can be seen from his works. Mr. Qi is a peasant, and he embodies a strong primitive, innocent and romantic rural interest from many of his works, and is also extremely engaging in the characteristics of the times.
In his language expression, many unfamiliar things in Chinese literati paintings, such as firewood rakes and scissors, can be placed in Qi Baishi's picture. In the past, most of the literati paintings were plum, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemums, and Qi Baishi also had them, but he was more of shrimps, earthworms, flies, mosquitoes, rats, cockroaches and other indifferent things. Things that were underestimated were given a cultural connotation by him. For example, Qi Baishi has painted a large number of rats. In the past, "everyone shouts and beats rats across the street" and "a gentleman on the beam", but in the works of Mr. Qi, he is lively and cute. He makes the "thief" flesh and blood and full of literary spirit. This is Qi Baishi's greatness, and it is also a manifestation of Qi Baishi's great nationality and contemporary nature. His works are a profound reflection of our millennium agricultural civilization. This was already very contemporary in the 1930s and 1940s.
Huang: Qi Baishi can do it, why don’t we do it?
Chen: Picasso once said that he dared not come to China because China has Qi Baishi. This sentence may be a bit ridiculous, but it also reflects the mutual respect brought by the different paths of Chinese and Western civilizations.
This is the reason why this master is born. Nowadays, many people are taking the Western path, and no matter how they go, they will not be respected by others. In the end, it can only be "planted by other people's fields and abandoned their own garden." In the future, whether artists who have made great contributions to world art like Qi Baishi can be produced, if they follow the current model, they will definitely not be able to do so. Of course, now, if you still do what Mr. Qi does, there is only a dead end.
I think the current situation of contemporary Chinese art is like our fruits bear on big Western trees. No matter how brilliant our flowers bloom or how huge our fruits bear, they do not grow on big Chinese trees. That big tree is not in the soil in the east, but just on big Western and European trees.
In 2010, I held a Chinese painting exhibition titled "New Talk about Mawangdui" in Beijing 798. At the end of 2015, I held a special exhibition "Come from Yangshao" on Foshan . I hope everyone will re-understand our ancient civilization. Since the painted pottery civilization, there have been too many cultural codes hidden in our ancient civilization. This is the source of our own artistic contemporary life.
Nowadays, modern Western art, such as surrealism, abstract expressionism, minimalism, etc., is actually well reflected in pre-Qin culture. But why don’t we reflect on the fact that our ancestors were so free and open, and could think about problems thousands of years ago, and why are we, as descendants of future generations, become increasingly timid and unable to let go?
Huang: Chinese contemporary art, how to realize its contemporaryity in Chinese painting? How to establish a rational and healthy theoretical system that belongs to us on the basis of the Chinese cultural context? Are there any Western contemporary worth learning from?
Chen: Now China's critical circle is relatively chaotic, emotional, strong individualism, and irrationally and calmly truly develops the system of developing the cultural context of Chinese painting. Or it is to borrow something from the theory of Western contemporary art to transform the theory of Chinese painting. The theory of Western contemporary art is very perfect. Every philosophical theory such as performance art installations and minimalism has a set of things that can support and convince people. But we don’t. We basically rely on experience to paint and rely on some fragmented theories accumulated in the past to support it. Therefore, it is difficult for Chinese painting to form a recognized value. Now we are still in an era when our husbands say that our husbands have reason and our husbands have reason, and we are arguing and destroying each other.
The important feature of Western contemporary art is de-nominalization and de-technicalization. They believe that art does not have any barriers. Everyone can become an artist. Everything can be the content of artistic expression. There is no distinction between media and no limitations of time and space. It can demonstrate the artist's creative enthusiasm and imagination with the greatest freedom. However, no matter how wildly you are, you must abide by the principle of original art. Repeating yourself and others is meaningless and there is no one to follow. From this perspective, contemporary art is active in promoting human innovative thinking and stimulating our imagination, and is also worthy of learning and reflection on Chinese art. We must see the vivid thoughts that Duchamp, Klein, Bois, Warhol, Abravich, and Kifer injected into contemporary human civilization. They allow us to see that the postmodern human beings are so colorful and colorful.
I don’t quite agree with the theory of “interpretation of China with the West”. At present, many young people in the art world in my country recommend Western theories and have a rash interpretation of this, which is their advantage. But it also brought many problems. They emphasized that they were able to see Chinese art in the Western view of art history and interpret Chinese art in Western languages. As a result, they drew the problem further and further, and in the end they could not even make up for it.
Huang: You are born from learning tradition and also advocate tradition. Do you think traditional art and contemporary art are in conflict or in harmony?
Chen: Traditional and modern, this is not inconsistent. All traditions were created by the living people at that time, just like what we created in the early 20th century in fifty years, a hundred years, or a thousand years later. If the things we created in the early 20th century are excellent, vital and original, and a thousand years later, people continue to miss the things we created by our generation, then we will become their tradition.
If there is no originality, no discovery of the true meaning of art, and no power to promote art history, it is not tradition, you are just making trouble there. To create excellent traditions, it must be combined with the times. If our current generation wants to create tradition, we must integrate the thoughts of our generation into our cultural products and think that is inspiring and inspiring to future generations. If our current people are just repeating ancient people and learning their forms, rather than getting inspiration from the cultural hints and wisdom they give us, then we lose the legitimacy and rationality of learning traditions. Therefore, tradition and modernity are actually a false proposition. They are always with everyone, especially a thoughtful and responsible artist who is always together, and there is no problem of separation and separation. This is a gene chain, and it will mutate when broken.
A joke I once wrote: "What is tradition? Tradition is the trap that a great man digs for a group of stupid B. What is inheriting tradition? That is, a group of stupid B keeps jumping into the trap that a great B is digging." This joke is another view of tradition, that is, we cannot worship and be obsessed with tradition too much. In fact, tradition is the independent thinking, independent personality, and independent soul of generations.
In other words, as art practitioners, we should not regard tradition as sacred and inviolable dogmatic things, and we should not regard modernity as a flood. Nowadays, many people are at these two extremes. Some people regard tradition as if they are like gods, dare not question it, and dare not put forward different opinions. It seems that modern and contemporary people are all floods and beasts, and these are not rational artistic views.
Huang: I think traditional expression is a kind of historical culture, a heritage of culture, and contemporary art is more about telling a social phenomenon, awakening everyone's thoughts on society, history and time, and is a critical art. What do you think? In fact, you also have this awareness in your works.
Chen: I think traditional art, especially traditional Chinese painting, does not pay too much attention to the real world. Although "education and helping human ethics" is a purpose of Confucian culture, this issue is not paid much attention to in Chinese painting art, especially literati painting, because literati painting emphasizes the philosophy of avoiding the world, sneaking into the mountains and forests, and being isolated from the world. Therefore, there is little direct collision between the born artistic values and the real society.
Traditional painting emphasizes "elegant works" and is a painting expression that escapes reality, so it makes many artists slowly move towards the mountains, return to nature, and remain uncontested with the world. In today's environment of extremely prosperous globalization, informatization and industrial information, Yipin's living space and opportunities are clearly gone. The old monks and Taoists are always using their mobile phones. Therefore, I often shout out loud: Yipin's obsolete theory! However, after the founding of New China, we learned from Western realist painting. Because the West returned to the real society's attention to human nature, we also gradually paid attention to real life. However, our attention is often limited to the main theme "Goethe-style" focus. Art is just a vassal of politics and is far away from the body. For example, the National Art Exhibition, which is once every five years, emphasizes a main theme, which is realism, and attention to reality. This attention is a kind of praise for the current era and the better life of mankind, but it seems special "black".
This kind of focus is rarely criticized and raised questions. However, after 1979, with the emergence of "scar literature", some scar art appeared, which was also some reflections on the Cultural Revolution on the past. These works were critical, and this criticality was relatively direct. It is through direct criticism of painting forms that lacks deep thinking about art itself. The real Western art criticism and thinking about problems are more about the art itself. Pop, which is widely concerned in Chinese contemporary art, intervenes in China's political issues in the style of pop art, especially the irony of reform, which seems very lively, but in essence it does not have the essence of art. I have always believed that the realist aesthetic orientation of "truth, goodness, and beauty" is no longer the aesthetic tradition of our era. In other words, what I want to emphasize is the tradition of "elegant products", "education and helping human ethics". Even the "Six Dharma Theory" that has influenced us for thousands of years are just traditional old things and are not contemporary. Whether it is beautiful or not, whether it looks good or not, whether it is elegant or not, whether it is suitable for it, whether it is not suitable for it, etc., it is even more untimely.
In my works, I emphasize the attention to life, life and human nature, which I have emphasized over the years. That is to say, the painter directly asks about human survival, why do we come to this world, why do we survive in this world, and how do we survive? This is what artists are asking about now.
For example, a series I drew in 2004 called "The Revelation of the Houses", which was a triptych I drew after visiting the Hakka Houses in Yongding, Fujian. This is my direct concern for human nature. I used thick burnt black ink to draw a lot of buildings, with many little celebrities interspersed in it, naked and naked. They seemed leisurely and freely shuttled between the coke-like jungle and houses without any scruples.But in fact, there is a potentially huge danger. I named it "William" and also means "Dangerous House". We humans are in this very burning, bitter and messy environment. We have no protection and the fragile creatures do not know the danger we are in. This is what the painting expresses, reminding us that our living environment is not the optimism we imagine. Many people cannot see dangerous existences. That kind of walled house cannot protect our safety and life, especially our spiritual safety, because our minds are very fragile.
After the "9.11 Incident" in 2002, I drew a set of "My City Series". Through the direct questioning of human civilization by the "9/11 incident", "9/11" is a human conflict caused by race and religion. The deep contradiction between Islam and Christians that can never be reconciled, especially the Western industrial and commercial civilization. It emphasizes the supremacy of national interests and the pursuit of maximization of interests. Under the urging of interests, people become greedy, selfish, and rude. Muslim countries feel that they have been greatly seized, exploited and suppressed, so they create the tragic "9/11 incident".
I repeatedly appeared in this set of "Mysterious City Series". The "Buddha" sat peacefully on the ruins of steel and concrete, but there was also a group of naked little heroes in the ruins below. They were our ordinary creatures. Why emphasize Buddha? Buddha is a representation of traditional Chinese culture or Eastern culture that I understand. Especially for the thousands of years of Buddhist culture, we pursue social harmony, non-competition, harmony, love others, and purity and tranquility in our hearts. This also metaphors the coordination of "Buddha" in the two major civilizations and the spiritual comfort.
killed one after another. After the "9.11 incident", the United States used its powerful military to destroy Afghanistan and Iraq , and executed the Iraqi and Libyan presidents, but these countries are still in the blood of war. Look at the world today's arms race under the United States has not stopped for a moment. The Americans invented the atomic bomb, owned more than a dozen aircraft carrier battle groups, and were armed to their teeth, but they were also restless by people like Bin Laden.
Another one is the 2015 painting "Endless Sailing", which is a work designed by the "Oriental Star" cruise ship sunk in the Yangtze River section of Jianli, Hubei. The human beings I am concerned about are always accompanied by many tragedies in the process of civilization. In the struggle between man and nature, human beings always seem fragile, and many lives are wiped out in an instant. However, I use a comedy and romantic mood to express a tragic life, and I hope to see the sad and beautiful life in the comedy. The fate of mankind is very desolate and full of tragedy. This is a problem consciousness and conscience that artists will never give up. However, artists should not cry with them. They should walk in front of others, hold a glowing lamp in their hands to explore the way for others; or when others experience misfortunes, they should bend over to others and give comfort gently; or when others encounter unexpected problems, they should shout to the ground, pay attention to safety, there is danger ahead.
Real contemporary art should pay attention to some issues in life and the real world. I do not think it is a political issue, but a deep problem of human nature. I said earlier that one of the three groups of works is caused by human thoughts and consciousness, religion, social environment, and the tragedy caused by humans' struggle with nature, so I think these are all the contents of my works.
Huang: Are you afraid that you should not admit that the incomprehension and exclusion of contemporary art is a generation gap in age and concept?
Chen: The so-called generation gap is actually not a question of artistic concepts, but whether we have an open or open attitude, and whether we dare to think, observe and explore the essence of the problem at the highest point of the times. Many Chinese people have serious cynicism and are prone to resistance to new things. Especially some colleges, they rarely have an open attitude, an inclusive and open mind. In addition, there is also an interest relationship that cannot be left behind.
Chinese people like to talk about portal opinions. For example, if you are from the Lingnan School of Painting, you will reject the Shanghai School, or other Schools of Painting. Even in the Lingnan School of Painting, I am a student of Mr. Guan, and you are a student of Mr. Li, and everyone will exclude each other. This phenomenon is common in China. Because of the perspective of the portal, it is easy to develop natural resistance to other cultures. This psychology brings into the creation of painting and art, and the problem arises. Innovation is the only way to develop art, and innovation is bound to be impossible to be accepted for a while, and the Lingnan School of Painting is still in controversy.
Huang: What do you think is the essence of innovation? Is it impossible to reflect the contemporary nature of Chinese art without innovation?
Chen: Why is Chinese culture not innovative and does not have the essence of innovation? This is inseparable from the relative conservative view of our art. Conservatism does not require the risk of failure and the time and effort spent in innovation. The West encourages innovation and treats innovation very openly. We regard innovation as a rebellion and a great rebellion, and often one step beyond the line will be destroyed.
Painting is completely opposite to contemporary art. We should admit that the development of Western art has its own logic and scientific nature. Chinese art, especially Chinese ink painting, also has its regularity. In fact, since human civilization has developed to this day, and in such a developed era, no one can completely imprison themselves. But the more they are in this high-development and prosperity, the more they must be able to think about problems calmly and carefully, which requires wisdom.
Unfortunately, world civilization is also the prey of the weak. With the development of human civilization, many ancient civilizations have disappeared, especially the modern civilization in the West is developing rapidly while destroying other civilizations, such as words, language, ethics, values, etc., which are slowly disappearing and eliminating under the influence of the powerful modern civilization in the West. This is the misfortune of human civilization and the misfortune of human culture. Innovation is not a culture that replaces another culture, nor is it a culture that eliminates another culture. We must remain highly vigilant.
The essence of innovation is that artists must think about issues from the perspective of the development of art history, constantly search for new highlights of human wisdom like scientific inventions, maximize and enrich the spiritual world of human beings, and provide more soul purifiers for mankind. It takes courage, quietness and feeling long-term loneliness.
There is another keyword about innovation, "art language". Art language must be purified. Without this premise, innovation cannot be discussed. For example, if we speak Hunan dialect, if we speak Cantonese innovation, we will never be able to touch the North. To truly enter the Cantonese system, you must go through long-term environmental immersion, otherwise you can speak fluent and meticulous Cantonese. This is the reason for the innovation of Chinese painting language.
Only when we fully understand the spiritual core of Chinese culture, the brushwork and ink methods of Chinese painting, etc., can we discover our problems and find the antidote. This recipe is innovation.
Huang: Do tradition and contemporary represent Eastern and Western art forms and concepts? Is there anything in common? Do you think the gap between Chinese contemporary art and the West is caused by cultural differences or historical factors?
Chen: What you are talking about is the issue of conservatism and innovation. Some people believe that the more ancient things are, the more traditional they are. Some people say that there are only art and art workers in China, but they cannot see art and artists. This is a bit full, but it is not good. Actually, based on what was mentioned earlier, this is not a problem. If we follow the laws of the development of human civilization and allow all kinds of civilizations to coexist and develop independently, then there is no problem that Chinese art falls behind Western art. This is not like the natural science or the industrial revolution. The West has experienced the ideological enlightenment movement and the industrial revolution. In the post-industrial era, we have been at the level of agricultural civilization for a long time. These shortcomings and gaps must be recognized.
But art is not like this. It is independent of ideology and science and technology, and there is not much comparison. There is no one behind who is ahead of who.
In fact, China's contemporary art has only gradually formed over the past 30 years of reform and opening up, and the beginning of Western contemporary art only began in the 1950s. They walked out of the painting on the shelf. Now the mainstream of Western contemporary art is no longer on the shelf, but on the visual thing that is fully open. So some people also asked whether Chinese ink painting can also go out of the shelf and follow the trend of the West. Many young people, including a group of artists born in the 1950s, are also trying to get Chinese paintings out of the shelf and on paper, and start installing ink and washing, experimenting ink and washing behavior, ink and washing alchemy, etc., all kinds of names are numerous. This practice itself is 30 or even 40 years behind others. But I think this kind of discussion has its positive significance and provides us with experience in reflecting on Chinese painting.
This is like our Peking Opera and Western opera. We see that Western opera has developed well, and those who sing Peking Opera also bring their own sets to us for transformation and hybridization. The fact of this combination is also ridiculous.
I once talked to Peng Wenbin, artistic director of Guangzhou Art Expo. Liu Yiqian , Wang Jianlin and other Chinese collectors go back to film some works of Western masters every year, spending hundreds of millions to buy Western contemporary and modern art works. Let’s look at it, which Western collector or art gallery uses this method to treat our Chinese art works? I didn't find one. Including Qi Baishi, , Huang Binhong, , and Zhang Daqian, these top modern masters have a lot of followers in China, but why can't they attract the attention of Western collectors? Some people say this is racial and cultural discrimination, but I don’t think the problem is that simple. This shows that when our art emphasizes locality, it lacks the concept of thinking about our art in the whole world, which has created great limitations in our local art form. This limitation easily makes some conservative traditional artists complacent and intoxicated, making our Chinese paintings always the paintings of us Chinese people, not the world.
Huang: What hope do you think is the realization of the contemporary nature of Chinese art?
Chen: How to move Chinese painting to the contemporary world, to solve this problem, we must first establish our national cultural awareness and confidence. Everyone is saying this, and they all have this understanding, but it is difficult to be confident in what to do when it comes to reality. Now there is a big problem that takes self-confidence, narcissism, and self-closure seriously. What I mean by self-confidence is based on a deep understanding of one's local culture, seeing its shortcomings and its excellence, but the specific excellence is to be clarified, and you should go in with emotion, rather than relying on red documents, holding meetings, shouting a few slogans, or building luxurious venues.
Secondly, the one that needs to build national cultural confidence is education. There are many problems with Chinese art education now. The training methods and teaching systems of colleges are all Western, and they lack sufficient understanding and understanding of the traditional Chinese culture and traditional painting expressions.
looks for it from the Western teaching system, and it will only become more biased the more you look for it. Building national cultural confidence is the fundamental reason for us to promote the contemporary nature of Chinese culture and art. This is the ideological basis and the theoretical basis. Without these, many things cannot be discussed. At the same time, we must also prevent narrow nationalist tendencies, believing that only national is the world, which is the view of Yelang’s arrogant and well frogs.
In fact, every major artistic innovation transformation in Europe finally promoted the entire process of modern civilization in Europe. The most typical example is the European Renaissance, the humanistic ideas and Enlightenment movement produced by the European Renaissance movement, which led to the Western industrial revolution. Why, when China talks about the past contribution to mankind is the "Four Great Inventions", there will be nothing in the future. Our current daily life, food, clothing, housing and transportation, all aspects and every detail, are all the shadows of Western civilization.why is that? Especially after the Renaissance, Western science and technology have made great contributions to modern human civilization. Our Chinese nation’s culture, and where are our contributions to human civilization?
Our most realistic problem is that cultural leaders are not cultured, art workers do not understand beauty, and their aesthetic ability is relatively low. Cai Yuanpei proposed "Aesthetic Education to Prosper the Country". If he did not start from improving the aesthetics of the whole nation, and effectively improve the aesthetic quality and ability of the nation, it would be difficult for the contemporary nature of Chinese art to have exciting development results.
Art Introduction to Chen Bingjia
Chen Bingjia, from Linxiang, Hunan, joined the army in 1981. He has worked as a film projectionist, camp political instructor, and political commissar of the regiment. He is a full-time painter in the Guangzhou Military Region Literary and Art Creation Studio, deputy director of the Guangzhou Military Region Art Calligraphy Research Institute, a member of the China Artists Association, and a national senior artist. After 35 years in the army, he is now a professional artist.
Appreciation of works:
The palace of unknown dynasty 154×98cm 1987
One of Yangshao came 180×180cm2012
The great cycle 200×200cm 2015
The great sage is here 180×98cm 2016
Religion of Buddha 180×145cm 2016
Yule New Chapter 137x68cm 2016
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